Surveying the U.S.’s imminent defeat in Vietnam in his 1972 book, Roots of War, Richard Barnet observed, “…at the very moment the number one nation has perfected the science of killing, it has become an impractical instrument of political domination.”

Since the 1980s, the U.S. has systematically violated the U.N. Charter’s prohibition against the threat or use of military force, carving out a regime of impunity for itself based on its Security Council veto, its non-recognition of international courts, and sophisticated “information warfare” to whitewash its crimes. But is it possible that our country’s decades-long campaign to politically legitimize “the science of killing” has been wasted on something that doesn’t work any more?

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Editor

Wayne Northey was Director of Man-to-Man/Woman-to-Woman – Restorative Christian Ministries (M2/W2) in British Columbia, Canada from 1998 to 2014, when he retired. He has been active in the criminal justice arena and a keen promoter of Restorative Justice since 1974. He has published widely on peacemaking and justice themes. You will find more about that on this website: a work in progress.
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